Travelers is committed to promoting career opportunities to a diverse range of talent in the actuary community. One of the ways where this commitment is apparent is through our partnership with the International Association of Black Actuaries (IABA).

Travelers’ strong presence at the recent IABA annual conference demonstrated the company’s commitment to investing in development opportunities for Black actuaries. One attendee was Whittney LeBruce, who was introduced to Travelers when she attended the conference in 2017.

Whittney participated in a pre-conference bootcamp for aspiring actuaries. The bootcamp included a mock interview with Travelers, where she made a connection. Whittney met with five Travelers attendees that year and become convinced the company would be a great fit.

Fast forward five years: Whittney, who is now a recruiting lead for entry-level talent, joined four other Travelers colleagues to share knowledge and lessons through a “cooking show” for this year’s conference attendees. The “chefs” used cooking analogies to demonstrate how building a predictive model is achieved with each “ingredient.”

“I really value promoting diverse talent into this career,” Whittney said. “Maintaining a connection to IABA has been paramount to me. Through my participation, I can help build a pipeline for Black actuaries, celebrate them and help us learn from each other.”

This year, Travelers sent 15 actuaries to the IABA meeting, triple the number Whittney saw when she attended four years ago.

A Travelers employee who also attended the conference as well and was honored as IABA Mentor of the Year.

“I got comments from multiple people from other companies on how many people Travelers sent to the conference,” Danielson said. “It was definitely recognized that Travelers is a leader, both in the content they presented and the value Travelers sees in sending people to the conference.”

In addition to being a recruiting opportunity, the conference is also viewed as an opportunity to retain talent who attend and return re-energized about their careers in this field.

“I’m very glad that Travelers continues to invest in me,” Whittney said. “And I’m honored that I can now help invest in others.”